Plastic leaded chip carrier ("PLCC") connectors which are known in the art include a plastic base having round, flat or rectangular pin contacts. A typical PLCC connector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,739. This patent discloses a connector for mounting and electrically connecting a chip carrier unit in an electrical circuit has a plurality of electrical contacts secured in openings in the bottom of an electrically insulating body to permit cantilever spring deflection of the contacts in accommodating a chip carrier unit within the connector between the contacts. The contacts comprise wire members of round cross section each having an opposite end bent to be slidable along a narrow line of engagement with an inclined ramp surface on an adjacent side wall of the connector body. Each contact has a bowed portion intermediate the contact ends which is bowed away from the adjacent ramp surface to slidbly engage terminals on the chip carrier unit as the unit is inserted into the connector. Engagement with the chip carrier terminals permits selected flattening of the bowed portions of the contacts and sliding of the opposite contact ends on the adjacent side wall ramp surfaces to provide simple beam spring deflection of the contacts in combination with the cantilever spring deflection, thereby to provide a force for resiliently engaging the chip carrier terminals.
According to conventional manufacturing techniques, a plurality of these pins are first made and then assembled into the plastic base in a predetermined pattern, usually in rows along each side on a peripheral portion thereof.
The plastic base and pins are separately manufactured and shipped to an assembly location, where an operator would manually insert each pin into each of the respective apertures in the base to form the PLCC connector. This manufacturing technique is unsatisfactory, since high production quantities could not be achieved at a reasonable cost.
A subsequent development includes the mounting of the formed pins onto a long brass strip, termed a "bandolier." This presents a continuously extending ordered array of pins which could be cut at predetermined intervals so that one entire side of the base, consisting of the desired number of pins (i.e., 6, 8, 9, 10, etc.), could be inserted in a single operation. This strip mounting process enables increased production to be achieved at lower cost. This bandolier operation represents a separate, additional manufacturing step which is undesirable, and does not enable precise tolerances to be met, thus requiring straightening and alignment of the pins after insertion.